By The Hour, The More You Buy, The More You Save!

We know; we all like to be told that our project will ONLY cost “this much!” Sounds great, right? In a perfect world, you are comfy knowing you will only spend “X” amount of dollars and you are going to get everything you should for some sort of fixed price. Ah, if only creating custom solutions or diving into eXisting solutions for tweaking were that simple and easy.

The truth is, in the world of fixed pricing, quotes, and bids, someone loses; and that someone is usually the client. In order to stay in business, a business has to turn a profit. Some of them ensure they turn that profit by padding their fixed prices and their quotes so you pay more for less work. Others low–ball on the front end — or offer something for free — and pad their hours later in the back-end. Think about it, a profitable business wouldn’t low–ball itself on a fixed price.

Fixed pricing also stifles creativity and TRUE problem-solving. The best solution for your unique needs might take more time or more research than originally estimated; a better solution might be discovered midstream that would necessitate additional hours of work which may benefit you multi-fold in terms of ROI when it is time to go live. When a business operates within a fixed price, it will turn to the kinds of solutions that have been profitable for them in that pay range in the past. Corners are cut. Crappy code is produced. The idea of a “custom” solution is abandoned. Clients are disappointed. We know this all too well as those unhappy folks who bought into the cheap price fortunately finally came to us to put them in a better place. Lesson learned the hard way.

That’s why we invest in getting to know you, your culture, your users, and your unique needs and workflow processes. The more we know, the more efficiently we can work together and make your custom solution come to fruition faster and save waste!

In the end, you’ll have to ask yourself a tough question: Do you want it merely done, or do you want it done right?

Hourly vs. Fixed Price – The Myth

We don’t claim to have the psychic ability necessary to quantify the unquantifiable. That’s why we charge hourly. With our hourly model you pay for the work that was done and required. Period.

But we also understand that an hourly billing model isn’t a free pass to rack up ridiculous hours of work. As consummate professionals, we will respect your budget and try desperately to stay within the guesstimated parameters. (This doesn’t mean we can build the Taj Mahal on an outhouse budget, but we can definitely build you the best outhouse in town on an outhouse budget.)

Many of our clients come to us ready to have a custom solution created the right way. They’ve been burned by “others” that lured them in with a free proposal or design specification and then delivered a shoddy solution and they’re seeking professionals who will help heal their wounds. Most times we can pick up where the last developer left off; other times the work is so bad we have to start from scratch. Either way, we deliver on our promises.

We have a 98% success rate with the customers who have hired us. Why? Because when you hire us, you get exactly what you pay for — our time, experience, guidance, availability and undivided attention, not to mention the exact amount of work that you signed up for. The best part is, when we’re done, you own the code, it is your solution. We won’t hold your project hostage. You may take it and do with it as you wish.

The bitterness of poor service and quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.

– Ben Franklin

So How Does Our Hourly Billing Model Work?

Our billing model is a flexible retainer–based structure in which you purchase a “bank” of hours. We offer very generous discounts off of our normal rate when you purchase quantities of time of 3 or more hours. The more time you pre–purchase, the more generous the hourly rate discount becomes. Purchasing time in advance also assures your project maintains its high-priority standing in our production queue. Any remaining time when it is all said-n-done that you have pre–purchased that is not used for your project is 100% refundable back to you. We don’t take your dollars, we earn them.

Unfortunately we no longer accept farm animals or used personal items in lieu of payment, we do of course take checks, or if you wish to charge your time-block purchases, we welcome Visa, American Express, Discover, and MasterCard.